Sunday, October 27, 2013

Libertarians, progressives team up against NSA surveillance

October 26, 2013 - "Progressives and libertarians came together in Washington on Saturday to protest widespread government surveillance, taking a tentative step towards creating a coalition that isn’t as awkward as the pairing might appear.

"Organized by the coalition Stop Watching Us, which includes dozens of groups ranging from Internet freedom advocates to Tea Party organizations, the rally attracted hundreds of people to the Capitol Reflecting Pool to protest the electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden this year. The crowd included Occupy protesters, Ron Paul libertarians, and even strict constitutionalist Oathkeepers. Yet ... attendees and speakers on both sides said they were happy to unite around a common enemy.

"A recent article in Salon by progressive journalist Tom Watson had ruffled feathers by calling on liberals to boycott the really because of its libertarian elements.... Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin rejected this premise in an interview with BuzzFeed next to the main speaker’s stage .

"'Left and right doesn’t mean anything anymore,' Benjamin said. Democrats and Republicans, she said, 'both like the status quo. Libertarians or leftists are people who want to defend the values of this country and not have party politics and I think we’ve started coming around together on many of these issues.'"